The seat should not be considered part of the prize pool. It is awarded to the winner of the tournament. The winner is the one who plays the game and has the winning hand at the end. Was the final hand of this tournament decided by the hand that was played by both opponents? No it was not. Hoy mentions how it was raise folded again and again to give him first place. This seat was not earned.

What about PokerEnthusiast? He came in third. Was he aware that Tom Jefferson had no interest in the seat and was going to fold out? Is that fair to him? No. He should have been informed of what was happening before he got knocked out.

It isn't fair to those who have won their way legitimately into the TOC. Shouldn't they have a say? Hoy is very good player. I will not knock his game. Do you want him part of that tournament? Likely not.

What about people who have won multiple seats? If you can buy a seat, you should be able to sell a seat. Why is it mutually exclusive? Let them sell their seats.*

We can keep arguing this until we are blue in the face. Shenanigans like this shouldn't happen in a blogger tournament. We read about cheating in WSOP or WPT events and should be happy that doesn't happen in our blogger tournaments. By allowing someone to buy a seat, we are basically saying it is ok for future event to allow collusion and chip dumping. Don't act like that isn't going to happen either. We already have people using backers. Only a few will know if they are working in cahoots and other will not find out until the damage is done.

Some of us care about this community and keeping such crap out of it. That is why this issue should be raised and discussed. This will blow over. Any thought that this hampers the image of bloggers or ruins someone's first experience is bullshit. This is like a fight on the playground. By lunch tomorrow everyone will have forgotten about it and be joking around again.

*Yes, this is part of the rules so it won't happen. Just stating if one is good, so should the other.